Leaving a big Country !!

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The end

We left this huge country with Arik Einstein singing in my ears. The

views at the beginning of the day were beautiful - brown mountains,

no plants, herds of sheep, small villages, kids waving at us... after 3h

of riding, at once the scenery changed 180 degrees to this amazing

views of waterfalls, green everywhere, beautiful flowers in beautiful

colors. Welcome to Nepal :-)

The beginning

Trying to summarize our Chinese experience was not that easy as we

have done so much, been to so many places, met so many different

people. The country is huge, enormous, the scenery is varied and you

can find here everything you look for, deserts, lakes, mountains,

people from different minorities, believing in different gods, having

varied customs.


Before leaving Israel, while buying a thermal shirt, the salesmen told

me that you couldn’t go to these places without feeling you are part of

it. That it catches you and you are hooked. I wasn’t really looking

forward to be hooked by a different culture but I thought it would be

nice to get some inspiration after the routine of the day to day at work.

It’s hard to say we got really connected to the Chinese - I guess you

have to spend some time to study the religions and know the people,

understand their way of live, otherwise it just pass you by... but we did

see many different things and experienced so much. I got closer and

felt connected to one thing - Yaron :-)



I guess that some of these feeling are related to the fact that after

almost 3 month in China, we didn't learn even basic Chinese. We

almost never used the phrasebook, I bet that if we made the effort we

would have communicated with the local and learnt more about them,

or at least - eat better and more varied food other than rice with

Chinese cabbage. The only things we know how to say in Chinese is:

rice, chicken, thank you, how are you? goal (in soccer - we know that

one from watching the Mondial games on the Chinese TV....)

The middle

We have so many experiences from these last 3-month. It really hard

to count them.

- Joining to a Chinese tour to lake Kanas and dealing with them for 4 days...the beautiful scenery made this experience worthwhile.

- Getting house arrested by the police in Samya, Tibet .

- Spending the night in a Yurt with the Tajik family and almost have a breakdown in lake Karakul, silk road - after that in Tibet we slept every night in worse conditions and I didn't mined it at all. I guess it is all about getting used to things and learning to be content with what you have and don't have high expectations until you know for sure what will happen. Well, maybe I did got a little of Buddhism...

- Visiting nature reserves (Kanas, Jiuzhaigou , Namtso Lake , Tian shin) traveling through the old Silk Road , traveling in Tibet - having amazing time although all the difficulties we had.

- Learning how to use the toilets, ignoring everybody on the way, trying to not touch anything and to breath as little as possible in the toilets

- Eating with chopsticks - we are experts now!!!

- Exchanging your clothes only after they are unbearable (shirt-7days, pants- 14 days) and not taking a shower for several days and still survive. When leaving to the trip my main concern was "I can't go to sleep without a shower - how will manage to be unclean?" well I can tell you now- it is not a problem - thank God for baby towels :-)

- Driving in buses for days "just" to get to the far end of the country and mingle with the culture and population on the other side of the border

- To lose control - not know were we would be next month, to feel the freedom to do whatever you want and go wherever you want to as long as we both want it.

- To be astonished by the social-economics differences between people in China. Rich, educated people in the big cites, against the poverty in the small villages (especially in Tibet) but also in the mainland. Visiting the small villages (5-10 houses) made us feel like we are on a different planet, a few centuries ago.

- Riding trains for tens of hours, reading books, listening to our music, and the best part - eating the imported food we bought especially for the ride days before :-)
The worst part - the sounds the Chinese are able to produce while spitting and coughing :-(

- Learning that when you travel with Yaron, you actually travel with a mountain freak! Whenever there is a mountain, or a high hill, he will climb it! At the beginning I thought he is crazy and trying to torture me. Than, after climbing a few, I realized the view is so much better up the hill, and that it is so rewording and started to climb with him...

While summarizing it all, I keep on remembering all the good things

that happened to us, the most beautiful places we have been to, the

interesting local people we meet on the way, trying new kinds of food

and as a result having health problems, getting used to sleep in lousy

places, visiting Everest (although not finding it)...



If that is what we have accomplished in 2.5 month, I can't wait to

the next 2.5...

China by numbers

77 days in China

Visited 11 provinces

6 national parks

Took 9 trains for a total of 211 hr

Slept in 31 different hotels and 1 Yurt-tent

City we spent the most time: Chengdu - slept 9 nights in Sim’s Cozy Guesthouse

Took 3 domestic flights

Spent 36,500 Yuan (roughly 4500USD)

Hagit Vomited 3 times

Longest time with the same shirt: 8 Days

Longest time without a shower: 3 Days

Longest train ride: 46 hr

Longest non-sleeper bus: 13 hr

5200m at Everest Base Camp was the highest point

-100m near Turpan was the lowest point

We did 6 laundries - 3 of them in Chengdu

700gr - the largest peanut bag we bought for a single ride

Hagit cooked 3 homemade meals

We ate 8 times in KFC

We bought 4 souvenirs and 1 gift

Hagit read 6 books and Yaron 4 (not including the daily reading of Lonely planet)

46 times we were asked where we were from and after saying Israel the person said “Ah, Italy”

Over 4500 photos taken - 656 photos on the blog

Met other Israelis 7 times

Traveled 18,000 km

we each lost 5kg in China

2.5 months - ½ of our trip gone!

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Photos

friendship bridge
the bridge is the boarder between China and Nepal

Comments

[Aba Yosi]

I love your blog
Hi Giti and Yaron You are absolutely wonderful and Your blog is a real masterpiece!!! From update to update it is always fascinating, interesting, creative, surprising and very moving. I wish you many new and wonderful experiences in the second half of your journey. Loving and admiring Yosi